Apple IOS6 - The traveller's view

Last week, Apple added a whole new meaning to the word "upgrade". We consumers have naively assumed that upgrades are about us - an upgraded user experience and upgraded features. Having played with iOS6 over the past few days, I sense it's more an upgrade in Apple vs Google hostilities. Precious little time seems to have been spent thinking about users - even less so travellers.



My problems started with the download. I'm here in Vietnam but my iTunes / App store account is Australia based. I managed to instal the new OS without a hitch but I was unable to upgrade the new versions of all the apps on my phone. Apple kept demanding I go to the Australian store but provided no meaningful information as to how I might do that from Vietnam. Fail no. 1.

Finally, after hours of messing about during which time my iPhone 4 was unthinkably reduced to being nothing but a phone, things came good (in a sense) and I was able to upgrade my apps.

Then came time to start using the upgraded phone and that's where the real disappointment began.

First I noted a deterioration in the phone's battery life (it's an iPhone 4). Then I opened Apple's new maps app.

Plenty has already been written about what a dud the Apple maps app is.

I'd like to add that it's a disastrous downgrade for travellers to Vietnam compared to Google's offering. I've only tested it here in Saigon but I'm going to assume it's equally bad elsewhere in Vietnam. And probably equally bad throughout many other Asian destinations. 

I have not been able to locate any of the Saigon sights, hotels or restaurants I've listed on Rusty Compass (basically the main places you want to visit here) using search on Apple maps.

They are all available using Google maps.

That's no small issue for a traveller. If you've become as dependent as I have on Google maps as a travel accessory and suddenly find yourself stuck using Apple's replacement, you might feel more inclined to toss your phone into the Saigon River.

A map app brings with it special responsibilities - especially in respect of travellers. Getting lost in foreign cities can be a very stressful experience - perhaps even a dangerous experience. And Apple is now depriving travellers of a mainly reliable Google resource that they had just days ago - before the "upgrade".

It's a fascinating story of hubris, market power and corporate rivalry where the user seems to have been written out of the plan.

The good news is that there's a reasonably easy way around all this. Simply access Google maps using your safari browser. While it's a little more clumsy than the old Google maps app experience, it's infinitely better than the Apple app. And it will suffice while we wait for the next Google maps app.